can bleaching damage my teeth

[satcfan]

ok so i got in contact with my prosthodontist and he is going giving me the trays etc today to start the bleaching before i get my perm crowns on. i have one front tooth thats sensitive only to hot drinks - but not very painful, just a bit of a mild jolt. i'm not sure which of two front teeth it is. will bleaching make this worse?? will i have to get the fillings that are at the back of my front teeth replaced? and will it bleach my front tooth that is rct treated, it was treated around 3 months ago. so many questions...sorry...

 

[Gordon]

If it's already sensitive, the bleaching will need to be done fairly gently and slowly to prevent the sensitivity getting worse, it'll just take a bit longer. The rest of the questions would be better answered by your dentist. Print them out and take them with you to your next appointment.

 

[brewer734]

hey
I recently had my teeth bleached they look amazing when they are done!! Anyway I had a filling on my front tooth and lots of others my dentist made sure the fillings were done a lighter shade ready for when my teeth were bleached so they would match up.
The sensitivity depends totally on individuals mine were fine the bottom ones were a bit sensitive at first and I have one tooth with quite a big filling thats already sensitive so I was convinced that it would be really bad with bleaching but that one didnt bother me a bit!!
Ask your dentist your questions anyway but honestly I think you will be fine look forwards to your new whiter smile !!!
Emma

 

[annie778]

I strongly disapprove of the practice of bleaching natural teeth to match crowns. Seems a bit nuts to me to have to keep it up forever.

 

[brit]

I strongly disapprove of the practice of bleaching natural teeth to match crowns. Seems a bit nuts to me to have to keep it up forever.

Ditto....nature didn't mean adult teeth to be 'brilliant white' like baby ones. I think bleaching hasn't been practised long enough to know if it has any long-term implications for dental health although most dentists seem to claim it is perfectly safe.
Bleach and enamel just seems a dodgy combination to me...if oxygenated water causes tooth erosion why on earth wouldn't bleaching if done repeatedly?

 

[satcfan]

aw man i am nervous of damaging my teeth now! i was under the impression that if you got tray bleaching by your dentist supervised etc it was safe and non damaging?? hmm...anyway i definitly don't want super hollywood white or anything like it. just a few shades lighter as i have very discoloured teeth - it would really boost my self esteem!! hope it doesn't do damage though. both crowns are relatively far back so i wouldn't be bleaching to match, it wouldn't be the end of the world if they ended up a bit whiter in the future for example than the rest of my teeth after the bleaching wore off as only one is visable and only if i'm really beaming from ear to ear. it would be worse if the crown was yellow and the teeth were all whiter than it.

 

[annie778]

Try it once if you are curious. It's the situation where some dentists encourage patients to have light coloured crowns at the front of the mouth with the ongoing commitment to bleach the rest for eternity that I disapprove of.

Why are your teeth so discoloured?

 

[satcfan]

i am not sure why they are so discoloured - my dentist said it was something to do with anti biotics?? but i am not 100% sure.

 

[letsconnect]

As the long as the person is aware of the ongoing need to bleach, isn't this is a personal decision? Nobody gets upset when people colour their hair and personally, I don't feel this is any different (as long as the person understands that it is an ongoing commitment and they are happy with their decision). My only gripe with it is that widespread adoption of this practice may put excessive pressure on others to follow suit and aggravate social exclusion of those who can't or won't conform to the "pearly white" ideal.

@satcfan: there is no evidence that bleaching can damage your teeth

 

[annie778]

i am not sure why they are so discoloured - my dentist said it was something to do with anti biotics?? but i am not 100% sure.

If it's tetracycline you took as a child then I didn't realise you could bleach that out. But Ive just read that you can have limited success, but it takes longer to work. A friend of mine had veneers on all his teeth as a teen for the same reason.

 

[annie778]

As the long as the person is aware of the ongoing need to bleach, isn't this is a personal decision? Nobody gets upset when people colour their hair and personally, I don't feel this is any different (as long as the person understands that it is an ongoing commitment and they are happy with their decision).

Well firstly I don't think anyone on the thread is upset about bleaching teeth as an option. If people want to do this it's clearly their personal choice.

However, you can't compare it to bleaching hair because you don't deliberately have a hair transplant in a different colour and then regularly bleach the rest of your hair to match. If you had grey hair would you have a hair transplant in brunette and then regularly match the rest of your colour to that? I reckon not. You'd have a grey transplant and colour it or not as you chose.

From a business perspective such a proposition to bleach natural teeth to match a lighter crown it is a good guaranteed income stream for a dental practice. Medically it's totally unecessary. From an ethical point of view, to hard sell this as some dentists like to, seems to me highly questionable morally. It just makes me see pound signs in the dentist's eyes when they mention this.

As for the safety aspect, I've had tooth bleaching myself once and I'm not convinced that had I continued there would be no impact on tooth structure long term. It felt too invasive and using the comparison between hair bleach and tooth bleach, well we all know that hair bleach involves alteration of the hair follicle and this damages the structure of hair. I find it hard to believe that long term use of bleach will not cause corresponding damage to enamel. But if there is a study that proves that's not the case then I am happy to be convinced of the facts.

 

[satcfan]

well i started the bleaching anyway, its an hour a day. have done two sessions and no senstivity so far, fingers crossed they don't get too sensitive. how long does it take to notice a difference, to the people who have had tray bleaching done?

just to mention as well, the prosthodontist definitly didn't hard sell bleaching at all, in fact i had started getting my crowns done and then decided now would be a good time to try and bleach my teeth, and he said it was totally optional and my teeth weren't as bad as i imagined myself, but that bleaching could definitly help a little at least, and was worth a try.

thanks for all the advice btw, great forum

 

[annie778]

I saw a big difference the first day. If you have tetracycline staining it can apparently take a lot longer.